Hi everyone!
Sketchcrawlers in Yamagata, Japan, visited Kaminoyama city in Yamagata pref this time.
Kaminoyama city is famous for its onsen (hot springs), some historical spots and sweet fruits.

First we visited Kaminoyama castle. This castle was reconstructed about thirty years ago as a local history museum.
The actual castle was first built there more than 600 years ago by a feudal lord, and it was protected and well maintained by successive lords. However, about 300 years ago, in samurai period, Japan's government ordered the castle lord to move out to other place and the castle was unfortunately destroyed then.

Chihaya's work:

Though this castle has a nice keep tower, I couldn't draw it all on my small sketchbook... Chihaya

Maki's work:

I am not good at drawing buildings, so I tried to sketch the stone wall.
It seemed to be easy first, but actually it was like a puzzle and I kept wondering how they arranged those stones so perfectly and beautifully

While I was sketching I was a bit hungry, so I bought this "tama-konnyaku," one of local specialties of Yamagata.
It's gelatin-like dumplings flavored with fish broth and soysauce, then skewered with a bamboo stick with hot mustard. Yummy...

Then, we visited another historical place, Harusame-an.
This is a place where one of Japanese famous Zen monks was exiled by a shogun (the leader of a samurai clan) in the 17th century.
The lord of Kaminoyama castle presented him a grass hut and he named it Harusame-an (spring rain hermitage.) He loved this silent and peaceful place and spent here for three years. There are a small tea house and a Japanese garden.

Small entrance to the garden

Metal wind bells in the shape of cute fish

Chihaya's work:

While drawing, I enjoyed the sound of this water dripping.
The garden was old and small, but I loved the atmosphere.

Maki's work:

It was a bit cloudy and muggy day. After enjoying sketching, I took Chihaya to my favorite cafe, Creston Cafe.
We enjoyed cold drinks with some cakes.

I would like to sketch some sweets next time...

It was a great sketch crawl, Chihaya!
I could discover again a new interesting place in my hometown, Yamagata. I think it is one of the pleasures of enjoying Sketch Crawl.
This is a great oppotunity to get to know our place better.
Thank you Chihaya!

Hi Tetsu, thank you for your support and comments.
I wanted to sketch a lot more. It was so fun.
We will try to upload more sketches than photos next time

Hi Dave C,
Thank you for your comments.
Exactly! I had never had such an opportunity to observe the "stone wall" so closely.
While I was sketching it, I realized that there were some rules to arrange the stones and was very impressed by the technique.

Hi Yoo,
Thank you for your comments.
I am happy to be able to share with you what we enjoyed here

Hope I would join you in some of the next Sketchcrawls.. wonderful images.
I`m so eager to see Japan and Kaminoyama city as close as you had, especially because I am a great admirer of Japanese culture.

Hi Maestral,
Thank you! We hope we can draw with you someday too.
We often rediscover some beautiful things about our hometown and our country while enjoying SC.
There are many such places around us. The children's sketches and the photos of your forum are excellent, too!

Thank you for your compliments
I am very glad to hear that my story was informative! We wanted to sketch much more but didn't have enough time...
So, next time you'll see more sketches than photos...hopefully!

Hi Vogadosketx,

Thank you for your nice comments!
Yamagata is countryside and is not a famous place, but we do have a lot of interesting things and places here.
So, I am really happy to be able to show you some of them through SC.

Oh , I love the castle and stone wall. The elegant curve of the roof and puzzle like walls amaze us. Love Chihaya's castle and Maki's stone wall so much. Thanks for sharing these beautiful photos too. What lovely place you've been! "tama-konnyaku" and sweets also looks soooo good